Take-up of electric cords



Jung 28, 1949. l E APLEGAT l 2,474,566

TAKE-UP 0F ELECTRIC CORDS Filed Nov. 12, 1946 -fz sheets-sheet 1 EARLAPPLEGATE In v enor Ang.

June 28, 1949. E, APPLEGATE 2,474,566

TAKE-UP 0F ELECTRIC CORDS Filed Nov. 12, 194e 2 sheets-sheet 2 EARLAPPLEATE 4- Inventor 5y@ Atty.

Patented June 28, 1949 omiso STATES TAKE -UP Application November 12,

8 Claims.

In operating portable electric equipment such as Vacuum cleaners, forexample-the cord extending from the wall outlet to the equipment issomewhat vof a nuisance. Usually the entire length of the cord isunwound by hand; and, since lmost ofthe length is needed only for ashort time, the cord is frequently lying in the way ofthe equipment.When the operating of the equipment is finished, the cord must again bemanually wound upon the hooks.

Because of the foregoing considerations, there has long been arecognized Aneed for practical automatic cord winding` apparatussuitable-for such purposes. Themotor of the portable device seems to bean vappropriate source of power yfor the winding'reeLbut it is notpractical to couple the 'winding reel directly to the motor because ofthe high speed of the motor. Speedreducing gearing would make itdifficult to pull the cord out from the reel. It has not been practicalto provide'a drivethrough a slipping friction clutch because thevconstant friction between the high speedand the low yspeed or stationaryreel would soon wear outany commercially reasonable friction clutch.

According to the present invention, this difficulty is overcome by usinga drive through a magneticeelectric device, including mag-nets and aninduction disk or through a fluid drive.

This lalone does not solve the problem, however, because such` drivemustbe able to supply sufficient torque to wind the cord on the reel, andthis amount. of torque, necessarily being accompanied by an equal dragon the motor, represents a power loss ywhich is highly undesirable inView of the high speed of the motor.

Accordingly, this problem in turnr is solved by arranging the drive sothat it may be readily rendered eiective or ineffective so that thepower is drawn Afrom the motor -only when'windin'g of the reel isdesired.

Thefcregoing is accomplished with relatively simple constructions whichdo not unduly-increase the dimensions or Weight of the apparatus and-which `are not prohibitive from' the standpoint of cost. They arefurthermore believed to be substantially freefrom the danger of givingtrouble.

Additional objects and advantages of the inventlon'will be-apparent fromthe following :descrip-tion and fromthe drawings in which:

Figurel is a somewhat 'diagrammatic representation of the inventionshowing -a vertical, cross-sectional view thereof.

Fig. 2 isa plan view of the reel forming an 'important part of theinvention, 'taken approximately on the linel2-2-.of Fig. 1;

Fig.y 3 .is a vertical, crosssectional"view ofthe upper portion of thehandle of-the'apparatus shown in Fig. 1;

from the hooks f PAT-ENT ori-FICE A 1946,` Serial N 0L 709,324 (Cl.242-77) Figs. 4 and 5 are viewsr corresponding to Figs. 1 -and- 3 but:showing aimodiiied form .of the invention, and

Fig. Slis `a fragmentary, sectional viewtaken approximatelyon the lineIi--I of Fig. 4.

Although the law requires axfull and exact de-V scription4ofwatrleastsone form ofthe invention, such as that which follows, it is,of course, the purpose of Iapatent to cover each new inventiveconcepttherein no matter how it may later fbe vdisguised-by variations in formor .additions of further improvements; and the 1 appended this i purposeby particularly pointing out the parts, improvei5 ments, or combinationsinwhich the yinventive concepts are found.

Inboth forms ofitheinventionchosen for'illustration the linventionV hasbeen illustrated in conjunction withV a vacuum. cleaner including a main`housing II operating-Honwheels I2. A motor I3 carriedbt7 the housing II Vdrives-a shaft I4 which carries' an impeller diagrammaticallyillustrated at I6 and which may also drive a brush I1. reel I8 isrotatably associated with the motor I3 and, according to the-presentinvention, is driven thereby at will to wind the electric cord I9 onthereel. 'The connection .from the cord I9 tothe winding ofthe motor I3 maybe made 'through two. orfv more Acollectorfrings 2I, each of 130whichmay be engaged by -a suitable brush 22. A motor control switch 223is also connected in thev circuit between the brushes 22 and the windingof motor I3, 'the switch- 23 preferably being `located* near the upper'end of the `handle 24.

'Inlthe form ofthe inventionshownin Fig. l, the reel I8 isrotatablycarried by the 'upper end of shaft I4, a suitable ballbearingunit 26 being Iprovided vbetween the' reel and the shaft I4. An inherentadvantage of Imounting the reel on the shaft is 'that :any slight torqueitransmitted through; the 'bearing 26 is'in a vdirection to aid .Windingthe cord. Hence -any deterioration of therbearingwill not 'oppose thetorque exerted bythe magnets VAan'dfkeep them from winding the reel. Thereel lmay lalso be run on or be stabilized by ballbearing units 21preferably arranged 'in 'an inclined position substantially as shownin'Fig. 1. It will be understood that, although the shaft I4 rotates athigh speed, the reel'IB rotates onlyat-very low speed, so that bearings21 are adequate.

An induction disc 3-I is carried and lrotated by shaft I4. This disc maybe madeof any suitable conductive'material, but aluminum is preferredfor lightness. Incidentally, it may be much thinner'than has"beenushown.Thereel I8 carries one or moreelectromagnets32, preferably in balancedrelationship, each' magnet having a pair 'of ,'60 'poles-adjacent totheinduction --disc 3l soy that 4the reel In View of the high speed of thedisc 3l and in 'ew of the small torque wh1ch sucient, extremely Weak. byproviding soft It may be made more eicient iron armatures 34 beyond thepoles of the magnets 32.

present preferred coils than this would suggest. For example, they mightbe operated from a small voltage such that the coils of magnets 32 maybe comprised merely of one or two turns connected in series with themotor I3, though as many turns may be used as found necessary.

Control If the torque The electromagnets 32 probably provide thesimplest possible method of controlling the torque.

the gripping position on the handle 24. switch 36 may be normally openor normally closed, depending on the circuit used. Thus, if

an independent 10W 36 would be normally by pressing the push Althoughonly two opened and woul button 31.

The form of the invention shown in Fig. 4 is of Fig. 1 except that athem horizontally disposed although probably the inclined disposition ofFig. 1 would be preferred.

To drive the reel I8, the motor is provided with an axially shiftableshaft 44 splined to the reel I8.

casing 42 4B. The 1s also preferably provided with fins.

which is preferably provlded with ns rotor 46 found to produce enoughtorque,`in View of the high speed of ns 48. i

To relieve the motor I3x of the drag torque represented by the drivingforce transmitted by fluid unit 4l, it is desired that means be providedfor raising and lowering the rotor 46 at will. A very small spacing isenough to almost completely remove the drag of this device.

In the illustrated form of control seen in Fig. 4, a spring 49 pressedbetween the reel I8 and a split washer 55 urges the shaft 44 upwardly,the washer 55 engaging an annular groove in the shaft 44. This normallyraises the rotor or disc 46 far enough above the fins 48 so thatsubstantially no drive is transmitted. When drive is desired, the handlever 52 of Fig. 5 is operated to draw wire 53 which, as seen in Fig. 4,swings crank lever 54 counterclockwise. As seen in Fig. 6, lever 54 isprovided with pins 56 to which the split washer 55 may be secured.Accordingly, squeezing the lever 52 presses the split washer 55downwardly and lowers the upper rotor 46 close enough to the ns 48 so asto be driven by the liquid rotated thereby.

It Will be observed that the drive 4l and the inducto-magnetic drive ofFig. 1 have in common the fact that they permit slippage between thehigh speed rotor and the substantially stationary reel, the slippagebeing of a type which is non-rubbing. This is important for economy andlong life and avoids danger of rapid deterioration if the operatornegligently holds the control in the activated position for a long time.However, it should be mentioned that a rubbing type of slippage clutchdriven and controlled substantially as in Fig. 4 is probably within thebroader aspects of the invention, if the invention is as broadly new asis now believed.

It is also noted that the controls shown could be used, or some similarthereto could be used, if the reel were mounted directly on the outerportion or field of the motor I3, this portion being rotatably carriedso that it could move by reaction in driving the rotor of the motor.During normal operation of the device, such as the vacuum cleaner, thereaction might be too low to wind the cord on the reel, in which event,the reaction could be increased by applying a drag to the rotor, suchdrag perhaps being the inducto-magnetic type of drag of Fig. 1 or thefluid type of drag of Fig. 4 or a frictional type of drag.

There will usually be a small length of cord still extending from theVacuum cleaner housing when the plug is pulled out of the wall outlet.This may be fastened to the handle by a suitable clip on the handle ifdesired. It may be preferred to extend the shaft carrying the reelthrough the housing and provide it with a small knob which may be turnedmanually to draw in the last bit of cord.

From the foregoing it is seen that a cord takeup apparatus has beenprovided which is suitable for use on vacuum or other portable electricdevices and which will wind the cord up whenever influenced to do so bya touch on the control adjacent the operating handle of the device.

I claim:

l. A portable electric device (including a portable housing and anelectric motor with a shaft carried by the housing), and cord windingapparatus including a reel rotatably carried by the motor with its axisextending in axial alignment with the motor shaft, a drive deviceincluding driven and drive elements, respectively, associated with thereel and motor for transmitting drive from the motor to the reel, saiddrive device being of a type which while driving the reel permits asubstantially non-rubbing type of slippage between the motor and thereel, and the drive element being driven at full motor speed and thedriven element being slip-driven thereby with such non-rubbing slippagethat while its speed is a small fraction of the speed of the driveelements, the torque developed is not more than slightly in excess ofenough to barely Wind the cord while loose.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 including means to render the drive deviceeffective and substantially ineffective selectively.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the drive device is ofthe electro-magnetic induction type.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the drive device includeselectromagnet means and an induction member magneto-inductively coupledtherewith, and including switch means for selectively energizing ordeenergizing the electromagnet.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the drive device is uid coupled.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the drive device comprises iiuidcoupled drive and driven members, and means for shifting one of saidmembers to effectuate the drive means or render it ineectve at will.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the reel is carried at least inpart by a bearing on said shaft.

8. A portable electric device including a wheelcarried motor with arotatable motor shaft for driving a working element with direct drive atmotor speed, and cord winding apparatus including a reel rotatablycarried by the motor with its axis extending in axial alignment with themotor shaft, a drive device including driven and drive elements,respectively, associated with the reel and motor for transmitting drivefrom the motor to the reel, said drive device being of a type whichwhile driving the reel permits a substantially non-rubbing type ofslippage between the motor and the reel, and the drive element beingdriven at full motor speed and the driven element being slip-driventhereby with such non-rubbing slippage that while its speed is a smallfraction of the speed of the drive elements, the torque developed is notmore than slightly in excess of enough to barely wind the cord whileloose.

EARL APPLEGATE.

REFERENCES CITED The following referenlces are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,862,267 Honig June 7, 19321,921,288 Farmer et al Aug. 8, 1933 1,978,082 Harwood et al Oct. 23,1934 2,002,629 Cobb et al May 28, 1935 2,254,221 Hubbard Sept. 2, 19412,365,691 Fodor Dec. 26, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date189,905 Great Britain Dec. 14, 1922

